Welcome back to the Hive FPL.

It's a fast turnaround for GW19 as we hit the midway point of the 25/26 season with it all still to play for.

GW18 was a tough week to accumulate points. The average score across the game was 44 points but as predicted the wide spread use of chips before they reset meant that there was a significant amount of variation on how teams did. In Hive FPL, 16 of the top 50 deployed a chip and all but one of them scored above average for the week.

@yagman01 topped the scoring charts by hitting 99 points in GW18 thanks to their bench boost. They would have breached the 100 mark but for the fact that Timber and Esteve both missed out due to injury. In fact, had they have had 2 additional players scoring then they might not have been far off the overall high score for the week across all 12 million FPL sides which was 118.

Other significant movers were @desro who also used their bench boost to score 77 points and take themselves into the top 10. Meanwhile, @nonsowrites triple captain choice of Ekitike didn't really pay off but their selection of Cherki, Wirtz and Van de Ven saw them deliver a score of 83 points that moved them 16 places up the table.

All in all it was not a week in which the template players delivered very much at all. Here is the Hive FPL template side, that is the 11 most popular players amongst teams in our classic league.

Dubravka was the only player to hit double points and the reality is that he is the bench option for most sides.

Semenyo did of course score in what might well be one of his last games for Bournemouth and Saka, Ekitike, Rice and Thiago all got assists but otherwise the popular players had a difficult week.

Even assuming that Dubravka was in the starting XI this team would have delivered just 51 points with Haaland as captain (44 out of the top 50 Hive accounts give him the armband in GW18).

Gameweek 19 weirdly straddles the New Year period with 6 of the fixtures taking place on 30 December then 4 of the matches happening 48 hours later on New Years Day itself.

Is there any advantage to targeting fixtures where the teams have had that extra break? I guess if you are banking on players in those last 4 games being a bit fresher then it means that you also believe that they won't have been out all night on the piss during New Years Eve!

Of the games I've witnessed this weekend, it is evident that some teams and players are looking a bit tired and I can't believe that we won't see some squad rotation coming into GW19, adding to the difficulty of picking up points.

It's also worth considering whether players approaching the limit for yellow cards might either be rested for this week's games or otherwise subbed off to avoid them getting an automatic ban.

At present, the limit is 5 yellow cards but that threshold will rise to 8 yellows at the end of this week. Therefore, if the following players can avoid a booking in GW19 the risk of suspension is deferred until later in the season.

The above are by no means all the players who are a yellow away from suspension but they certainly represent the most popular picks in FPL who are walking the tightrope at present.

Division 1

GW18 results

GW19 Fixtures

Division 2

GW18 results

GW19 Fixtures

GW19 Player Picks and Tips

Here are our tips and picks for GW19 of the season...

It's tough at the top

With Arsenal playing Villa and Man City traveling to Sunderland, it's fair to say that getting big points out of some of the sides going well this season and the popular FPL picks amongst those teams is going to be tough in GW19.

Even Liverpool who have snuck up to 4th thanks to an unbeaten run of 6 matches face off against another in form team in Leeds who themselves are unbeaten in their last 5.

With Arsenal having conceded just 4 times at home this season and Sunderland shipping just 8 goals in their 9 matches at the Stadium of Light it seems likely that both the aforementioned games will be tight affairs without many points on offer to the attacking players.

The big question then is should you stick with Haaland as your captain or take a punt elsewhere?

By contrast the game at Anfield is likely to have goals! Both teams have scored in the last 8 league matches involving Leeds while 4 of Liverpool's last 5 games have also seen both teams score. The defensive records of both sides are poor this season while Ekitike and Calvert-Lewin have been popular buys over the last couple of weeks and might both prove viable options for the captain's armband in GW19.

With Arsenal playing Liverpool and City versus Chelsea to come in the next couple of weeks then it might well be the case (as it was in GW18) that a lot of the popular picks struggle to deliver big points.

Amorim finally gets that call from the Pope

The United manager once famously said that not even the Pope could get him to change his formation and style of play. Well it appears that some form of divine intervention or possibly just a selection crisis has managed to change his mind!

Amorim fielded what was essentially a 4-2-3-1 against Newcastle with a far more conventional back 4 and 2 holding midfielders instead of the wing backs and a single pivot. It worked and United held out for a 1-0 win over the Magpies.

From an FPL point of view, the players worth watching in this new formation are Dorgu and Heaven.

The former switched from his normal left wing-back position to be one of the three behind Sesko and of course scored the winning goal! FPL managers are always on the look out for a player playing further forward than his stated position with Dorgu's goal + clean sheet + bonus delivering a whopping 17 points in GW18.

Heaven meanwhile has been given his chance thanks to the injuries to Maguire and De Ligt and the loss of faith it would seem in Leny Yoro's abilities at this level. The former Arsenal academy graduate has now started the last 5 United games and while you wouldn't necessarily back Amorim's side to keep many clean sheets at 3.8mil it's difficult to ignore him.

In fact, United (as we've mentioned before) also have a very generous run of fixtures now with back to back to back matches against the 3 promoted sides.

Fixture difficultly favours some

As we've noted above, there are plenty of big games involving the teams in the top third of the table coming up in the next few game weeks but that of course does mean that FPL managers might be able to find value elsewhere.

Newcastle head to relegation threatened Burnley this weekend before embarking on an incredibly busy January that sees them play 9 times. The good news for the Magpies is that they don't need to do much travelling during that period. Their next away game is against Wolves on 18 January and in fact that is the only time they leave Tyneside in the next 7 fixtures after this one.

We know that St James Park is a tough place to play so you'd back them to pick up points against Leeds and Palace while improving on their away record versus the bottom 2.

The Magpies patchy form means that none of their attacking players really stand out but there might be value in targeting defenders. Lewis Hall is back fit and taking his fair share of set-pieces. With Palace (10 goals conceded from set-plays this season), Burnley (8) and Leeds (7) to come then that might prove a useful source of both attacking and defensive returns.

Spurs too have a decent run of matches with the red game against Bournemouth based more on how things stood at the start of the season opposed to now with the Cherries below Tottenham in the current standings.

Again, you'd be backing players here on what they might do as opposed to what they are doing with it being very difficult to know which Spurs side will turn-up on any given weekend.

Richarlison has 3 goal involvements in his last 4 games and in fact has 10 GIs over the entire season. Only 4 players have managed more goal involvements in the 2025/26 season than the Brazilian and they've done so from far more minutes on the pitch than he has been afforded.

We saw at a similar stage last season that when afforded a run of games, Richarlison can deliver consistent points hauls. Will that be the case again in 2026?

Who are you picking in GW19?